NFL Playoffs, Bears 35, Seahawks 24: Chicago Advances To NFC Championship Game

Entering the NFL playoffs, the buzz was that the Seattle Seahawks, winners of the NFC West at 7-9, didn’t belong. They quickly quieted those concerns with a shocking upset of the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. Seattle was facing a Chicago team that many viewed as a team with flaws. In other words, they were beatable.

The Bears showed very few, if any, flaws against the Seahawks on Sunday as they rolled to a 35-24 victory. SB Nation’s Field Gulls says the Seahawks didn’t look like they belonged in the playoffs.

Sunday’s game between the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks was going to go one of two ways. The Bears come out and dominate from the get-go or Jay Cutler throws a couple of picks as the Bears offense struggles and allows Seattle to stay in the game.

It went for the former. The Bears jumped out to a 21-0 lead early in the first half and never looked back as Seattle tacked on a couple of late touchdowns when the game was out of reach. SB Nation’s Windy City Gridiron said the Bears played up to their potential in the Seahawks game.

For one week, the Seattle Seahawks looked like a half-decent NFL playoff team. Then they ran into the Bears at Soldier Field.

The Bears built a 21-0 lead in the first half as snow swirled in Chicago, then held on as Seattle mounted a comeback that was too little, too late, winning their NFC divisional round playoff game 35-24 and earning the right to host the NFC Championship Game.

For the Seahawks, the dream, as they say, is dead.

The Bears added a fifth touchdown on the day — Jay Cutler’s fourth, and second through the air — on a Cutler throw to backup tight end Kellen Davis, and now lead the Seahawks in today’s NFC divisional round playoff game at Soldier Field.

The Seahawks are now just three possessions back of the Bears, thanks to a clutch drive and some head-scratching play-calling from Mike Martz.

Matt Hasselbeck found Mike Williams for a two-yard touchdown pass to make it 28-10 early in the fourth quarter, bringing the Seahawks within dreaming distance of the NFC Championship Game.

Suddenly, Jay Cutler is making plays for the Bears on the ground.

Cutler just scrambled for his second rushing touchdown of the day in the third quarter, and put the Bears up 28-0 after the Robbie Gould extra point.

After losing John Carlson to an injury early in today’s NFL playoffs game, it appears that the Seahawks will be without Marcus Trufant.

Trufant was injured when his head collided with a Bears player’s knee while trying to make a tackle, and Trufant went down and stayed down for several minutes. Trufant’s arms splayed out stiffly to his sides in the classic “fencing response”, which makes it very likely Trufant sustained a concussion on the play.

Oh, so now Jay Cutler’s going to make plays with his feet for the Bears?

Cutler scrambled left and bulled his way past Seahawks defenders into the end zone on a six-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter at Soldier Field, and the Robbie Gould extra point made the score 21-0, Bears.

The Bears are demonstrating some of the offensive balance that is key in the NFL playoffs against the Seahawks.

Chicago got another big completion from Jay Cutler to Greg Olsen to get into the red zone — Olsen took a curl route for 33 yards after breaking a tackle — then got its second touchdown of the day with a commitment to the running game.

Seahawks tight end John Carlson has left today’s Seahawks-Bears game with a head injury.

The Seahawks tweet that Carlson’s injury, which required him to be removed from the field on a stretcher, was not as bad as it looked.

The Bears wasted little time in taking a lead on the upstart Seahawks in their NFL playoffs clash.

Jay Cutler went deep to Greg Olsen, who blew by Seattle’s secondary, for the game’s first touchdown. Olsen’s 58-yard touchdown reception came on the Bears’ first third down of the day. Robbie Gould converted the point after for the Bears’ 7-0 lead in the first quarter of this NFC divisional round playoff game.

Seattle Seahawks LB Lofa Tatupu suffered a concussion last week in the Seahawks upset victory over the New Orleans Saints. He hasn’t practiced this week and has yet to pass his post-concussions tests according to head coach Pete Carroll.

That means Tatupu will be a game-time decision on Sunday.

The Bears have the second seed in the NFC meaning they had a first round bye and will host the divisional round game in Chicago. The Bears have struggled offensively at times sitting at 21st in the NFL in scoring while their defense has been what we think of when someone says Chicago defense -- hard-nosed, capable of stopping the run and a large part of them securing the second seed in the NFC.

The Bears are 10 point favorites already so clearly most are thinking they’ll walk away with this one.